Mr. Adams to Lord Stanley
My Lord: Under instructions from the government which I have the honor to represent, I feel it a most painful duty to present to your lordship some considerations which may possibly weigh with her Majesty’s government so far as to induce it to mercy to the prisoners now under sentence of death in Ireland for political offences, at least to the extent of a commutation of the fearful penalty.
Disclaiming as I do on the part of my government any intention to interpose as matter of right in these cases, and freely admitting the fairness of the proceedings under which the parties have been condemned, I propose simply to confine myself to a statement of the reasons which prompt my government to venture upon any representation in their behalf.
No evidence has been received at this legation satisfactorily to show that the prisoner Burke has ever been naturalized as a citizen of the United States. It is not therefore on ground of that sort that I proceed. But there is reason to believe that at the critical period when an insurrection took place among us of a most alarming character, threatening at one moment to total subversion of the established authority of the land, this individual voluntarily came forward to offer his services in the support of the government. They were accepted, and he subsequently did his part bravely in the work which terminated in restoring the legitimate power. Under these circumstances it would seem to be no more than an act of grateful remembrance to offer a plea in his behalf, in mitigation of the penalty upon his present offence.
The case of John McCafferty stands upon wholly different grounds. He is a native citizen of the United States, and there is no doubt that instead of volunteering to the support of the government of the United States in the emergency referred to, he, though belonging to a loyal section of the country, not only enlisted but served throughout the war in the insurgent ranks. Hence it is certain that his conduct rendered him liable to pay the same penalty to the violated law of America that he appears now to have received in Ireland. But on the restoration of peace, the government wishing to inaugurate a new and more humane system of treatment of purely political offences than had heretofore prevailed, decided not to exact the last penalty against notorious offenders, but rather to remit it, and to accept a renewal of their allegiance in condonation of the past. This was the case with the prisoner. It is therefore in his behalf as a native citizen of the United States that I have the honor to transmit for your lordship’s consideration an opinion of his counsel, Mr. Butt, on the present state of his case. It would appear from this that many questions of law were raised in the course of the trial, upon some of which the judges themselves differed in giving their decision. So far as it may be within the power of this legation, every proper means will be taken that may secure to him the benefit of the fullest privileges granted by the law of the realm. I am constrained to agree in opinion with Mr. Butt that this case does not admit of any right of interposition under the principles of international law; but I cannot help expressing the conviction that in view of the precise condition of things in the United States, the merciful policy there adopted in their domestic affairs is better adapted to allay the bitterness consequent upon a fearful internal strife than the shedding of blood with a view to deter future offenders. It is impossible to disguise to your lordship the fact that the United States now contain a population of Irish extraction so very numerous that what is thought to be a harsh decision of her Majesty’s government in these cases will have even a more unfortunate effect on their sympathies than if they were all still remaining subjects to her Majesty’s authority.
The very peculiar relations into which the two countries are thrown by the fact of the distribution between them, now almost in equal numbers, of the people of that island, by which the peace of the one is affected almost as much as that of the other, may, I trust, justify me for what might otherwise be deemed as passing the proper limits of international courtesy in this representation.
Neither is it perhaps altogether out of place to remind your lordship that in the period of domestic insurrection referred to, persons were found engaged in the rebellion proved to be British subjects, and still more conclusively proved to have been guilty of acts of atrocity and violence far out of the pale of civilized warfare. In one case within my own personal knowledge the offender was condemned to suffer the last penalty inflicted by offended justice, but in consequence of the earnest and urgent representations of British subjects, forwarded in part through the medium of this legation, and partly more directly to my government, the sentence was commuted, and the offender is now expiating his offence in the prisons of the country.
I pray your lordship to accept the assurances of the highest consideration with which I have the honor to be, &c., &c., &c.
The Right Hon. Lord Stanley, &c., &c., &c.